Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, May 27^th, 1913

C. W. Tobie, chief criminal investigator for the Burns Detective Agency, formally withdrew from the Phagan investigation Tuesday morning. The calling off of the Burns forces was announced by Dan P. Lehon, superintendent of the Southern branch, after Tobie had stated explicitly that he would not withdraw from the case.

Colonel Thomas B. Felder, who brought the Burns detectives into the Phagan case, would make no statement relative to their withdrawal but announced that it did not mean the end of his investigation or connection with the case.

Tobie made up his mind last Friday to drop the Mary Phagan investigation so he said Tuesday—but deferred action until, Monday night, when he announced his intention to withdraw to Solicitor General Dorsey.

Disgusted With “Fuss.”

Acute disgust at the “four or five cornered fuss” raised by the Phagan investigation was assigned by Tobie as the cause. This disgust was superinduced by the direct charge and general impression that the Burns Agency was pretending to ferret out the Phagan case, when in reality its purpose in Atlanta was to investigate the police department.

Tobie said to-day that while he has quit and was going to leave Atlanta, still the withdrawal of the Burns Agency need not be permanent.

“If certain features of this case are not developed, then there will be one, and maybe two, Burns men back here. I will send them here, but they will work in secret. There will be no more public investigation.”

Tobie explained he believed Leo M. Frank was guilty of the Phagan murder and that the “certain features” meant additional clinching evidence not yet published that will make Frank’s conviction certain.

“How can any house have harmony,” said Tobie, “when the old man is fighting the old woman, and the old woman is fighting the children, and they are all fighting the hired girl? That’s the shape this affair has gotten into, only worse.

“We came here to investigate this Phagan case, and for no other purpose. But the charge was made that in reality we were investigating the police department. The way things were shaped up the police could not help believing that charge to be true. Colonel Felder’s attitude bore that out, so I decided last Friday to quit.”

“Do you mean, then, that you were dissatisfied at Colonel Felder’s attitude?” [he] was asked.

“We were dissatisfied with that part of it, yes,” was Tobie’s reply.

Tobie Himself Through;

Tobie reiterated he ended the investigation himself. “I called myself off,” he said. “Dan S. Lehon, our Southern superintendent, was close to Atlanta. It was as near for him to pass through here on his way back to New Orleans as it was for him to go any other way. I was in charge here, but, as you know, I do not belong to this territory. As a pure formality and a matter of courtesy, and because I knew he was coming here to visit his wife’s relatives, I sent him a message inviting him to confer with me. When he got here I told him as a courtesy that I had decided to quit the case. He approved it. Had I told him I would continue, he would have approved that, too.

This is the worst mix-up I ever saw anywhere, at any time. It’s awful. Everybody is fighting everybody else, and I am through with this four or five cornered fracas, except that if more Burns men are sent here I shall send them here and they will report to me.”

Bribery Charges Denied.

Rumored attempts to bribe witnesses were given strong denial in many circles, particularly by those whose names were connected by rumor with the alleged bribery attempts.

C. C. Sears, superintendent of the Atlanta branch of the Burns detective agency communicated to Chief of Detectives Lanford the announcement of the withdrawal of the Burns forces from the Phagan case.

Chief Lanford authorized the following statement on the departure of Tobie:

“Tobie, I believe, is straight and honest. He was victimized by Felder. I am convinced Mr. Tobie was working toward the interest of those seeing to clear the mystery.”

Praises Superintendent.

A girl employee of the pencil factory has written the following statement, which upholds the working conditions of the factory and champions the character of the imprisoned superintendent:

“Nothing has ever been said of the girls of the pencil factory until after the terrible murder, but since then there has been one continuous talk, just as if we were to blame. We are just as anxious to see the guilty punished as the rest of the public, and we all loved Mary Phagan just as much as we possibly could.

“If the public only would interest itself to look into other factories and stores they would find the girls in the pencil factory are just as good as any other working girls.

“It looks mighty hard that we have to work in this place where our little friend was so horribly murdered, but we are only poor working girls, trying to make an honest living, and we try not to think of the tragedy any more than possible; and we have the interest of the factory too much at heart to desert in times of trouble.

“We all hope and pray the guilty will be punished and the innocent given freedom, for we all think our superintendent has a soul himself and that he would not think of such a thing, much less commit such a horrible crime.”

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Atlanta Georgian, May 27th 1913, “Burns Man Quits Case; Declares He Is Opposed,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Mrs. Nina Fomby, woman who made affidavit that Leo M. Frank had telephoned to her on the day of Mary Phagan’s death trying to get a room for himself and a girl.

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, May 26^th, 1913

Chief of Detectives Lanford was given two papers Monday accusing friends of Leo M. Frank of attempting to bribe a man and a woman to swear that they saw Mary Phagan at 10:30 Saturday night, April 26, at a soda fountain at Marietta and Forsyth Streets.

These papers were given Lanford by A. S. Colyar, whose entrance into the Phagan case has been marked by one sensation after another. Colyar told Lanford that the papers were copies of sworn affidavits and that he had the originals which he would produce at the proper time. The copies are not signed.

Haas Denies Charge.

Emphatic denial that he had in any manner resorted to bribery in behalf of Frank was made by Herbert Haas, well-known Atlanta attorney and friend of the pencil factory superintendent. Mr. Haas further declared that any intimation that he had sought to bribe anyone was absolutely false.

Two Affidavits Alleged.

Colyar said that one of the affidavits was signed by the woman it was sought to bribe and the other by the man, a traveling salesman. Five hundred dollars each is said by the alleged of the affidavits to have been offered to the man and the woman for their testimony.

Colyar alleges that the woman was brought here from Birmingham with the intention of inducing her to swear to the statement that she saw Mary Phagan late Saturday night. He said that he knew where she was at the present time, although the friends of Frank though that she had left the city.

Another report of attempted bribery was submitted to Chief Lanford by Will Henson, of 12 Leonard Street. Henson told Lanford that he had been informed by Mrs. Edmondson, mother of little Monteen Stover, of 175 South Forsyth Street, that a man had come to her house and asked how much she (Mrs. Edmondson) would take to keep Monteen out of town until after the trial had concluded.

Swore Frank Wasn’t in Office.

Monteen Stover is the girl who is reported to have gone to the factory at 12:05 o’clock Saturday afternoon and to have been unable to find Frank in his office, although he swore he was there all the time from the moment that Mary Phagan left his office until Lemmie Quinn is said to have entered at about 12:20.

After hearing the report, made to Chief Lanford that an offer had been made to her to keep her daughter, Monteen Stover, out of Atlanta till after the trial of Frank, Mrs. Edmondson dictated a denial to a Georgian reporter. Her statement follows.

Mrs. Fomby [sic] Not at Home.

“No, there has been nothing like that at all. There has been no offer of money, or anything else, for my daughter to leave Atlanta. There has been nothing but just her little testimony you saw in the papers, and no improper offers have been made to either me or her.”

The detectives are also working on reports that Mrs. Mima [sic] Fomby, of 400 Piedmont Avenue, the woman who reported that Frank had called her up several times by phone on Saturday night, has been approached by several persons who have attempted to bribe her to alter the statements contained in her affidavit.

Mrs. Fomby has not been seen at her residence for two days. She is said to be out of the city visiting friends.

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Atlanta Georgian, May 26th 1913, “Lay Bribery Effort to Frank’s Friends,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)